Transcript Holocaust - Bishop Ireton High School

Auschwitz
“arbeit macht frei” — “work sets you free”
• The systematic state-sponsored murder of 6
million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators
during World War II.
• The word itself is Greek in origin meaning “burnt
whole.”
• In Hebrew, the word is “holokauston” literally
meaning “that which is offered up”.
1. It is a major historical event
2. It makes us look at the fragility of democracy.
3. It shows us the dangers of indifference.
4. It is a prime example of man’s inhumanity to
man.
• In 70 A.D. there is a break between Judaism and
Christianity after the destruction of Jerusalem by
the Romans.
• Roman responsibility for the murder of Jesus
gradually diminishes with more emphasis placed
on the Jews as the murderers.
• Jews became known as
rebels against God – a
Race of Vipers.
• Verbal Irony – when a character says or believes
something that the audience know is not true. A
character may or may not be aware that his or her
statement is ironic.
• Example: A slave owner stated, My slaves respect and
love me when I discipline them with beatings and
starvation.
• Situational Irony- when a scene or action occurs that
implies a meaning.
• Example: A man who is an inept failure in life, envisions
himself a hero while he stands in front of the Vietnam
War Memorial.
• When the audience/reader knows more than the
character does
• Example: In “Oedipus Rex,” we (the reader) know
that Oedipus indeed did kill his father and marry
his mother, but he does not.
• Increased anti-Semitism; Jews are
accused of the “blood libel” –
murdering Christian children as an act
of ritual worship at Passover.
• Increased acts of violence against
Jews in the spring, particularly around
Good Friday.
• Jews were expelled at various times
from England, France, and in 1492 –
Spain.
• At the heart of the hatred – the Jews
killed Jesus.
• Jews lived on the fringes of society.
• Anti-Semitism continues to the Protestant
Reformation and improves during the
Enlightenment Period.
• France – the most liberal country in Europe
toward Jews in the 1830s.
• Economic depression, massive
unemployment, social unrest, loss of national
confidence.
• Nazis - Nationalist Socialist Party - became a
significant minority party only in 1930.
• Tactics based on
terror, street
brawling and
thuggery , as well
as intimidation.
• Attracted a wider
following as economic
conditions worsened in
Germany.
• Spell binding orator
• Skilled organizer
• Named chancellor in 1933
with the hope that he
would become more
moderate in his tactics.
• April 1, 1933 - Boycott of Jewish
businesses.
• April 7, 1933 - Burning of books.
• January, 1934 - Sterilization of
those considered abnormal.
• 1935 - Nuremburg Race Laws Jews persecuted not for religion,
but for race.
• 1938 - Jewish businesses taken
over.
• 1939 - Census taken to identify
Germans and used against the
Jews.
• 1942 - Jews deported and sent to
concentration camps.
• Philosophical movement that developed in Europe in
the 1800s and early 1900s.
• Interested in the nature of existence or being.
• Grew out of the work of two thinkers: Nietzche and
Kierkegard.
• Argues that certain knowledge no matter who you
are, is an unattainable goal.
Nietzche
Kierkegard
• Everyone is a limited human being.
• Stresses the importance of choice in creating
values.
• Human beings can have laws, rules, traditions,
and customs to guide them, but in the end, the
individual is free to choose what he/she believes.
• Emphasis is on freedom and choice.
• We are free to choose our own attitudes.